Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Acts 2:39

For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, [even] as many as the Lord our God shall call.

39. the promise is unto you, and to your children ] Just as “to Abraham and his seed were the promises made” (Gal 3:16), so is it to be under the new covenant.

all that are afar off ] Peter knew from the first, we see, that the Gentiles were to be admitted to the same privileges as Israel. But Christ’s commission said they were to preach first in Jerusalem and in Juda. Peter needed the vision of the great sheet let down from heaven to tell him when God’s time was come for the extension of the work; and though in his dream the natural prejudice of his race was asserted, yet when he awoke he went “without gainsaying as soon as he was sent for” (Act 10:29), as he says to Cornelius. For Christ’s words had been “Go, teach all nations.”

shall call ] Better, shall call unto him. The verb is a compound, not the simple verb.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

For the promise – That is, the promise respecting the particular thing of which he was speaking – the influences of the Holy Spirit. This promise he had adduced in the beginning of his discourse Act 2:17, and he now applies it to them. As the Spirit was promised to descend on Jews and their sons and daughters, it was applicable to them in the circumstances in which they then were. The only hope of lost sinners is in the promises of God, and the only thing that can give comfort to a soul that is convicted of sin is the hope that God will pardon and save.

Unto you – To you Jews, even though you have crucified the Messiah. The promise had special reference to the Jewish people.

To your children – In Joel, to their sons and daughters, who would, nevertheless, be old enough to prophesy. Similar promises occur in Isa 44:3, I will pour my Spirit on thy seed, and my blessing on thine offspring; and in Isa 59:21, My Spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seeds seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and forever. In these and similar places their descendants or posterity are denoted. It does not refer merely to children as children, and should not be adduced as applicable exclusively to infants. It is a promise I to parents that the blessings of salvation shall not be confined to parents, but shall be extended also to their posterity. Under this promise parents may be encouraged to train up their children for God; they are authorized to devote them to him in the ordinance of Christian baptism, and they may trust in his gracious purpose thus to perpetuate the blessings of salvation from age to age.

To all – To the whole race; not limited to Jews.

Afar off – To those in other lands. It is probable that Peter here referred to the Jews who were scattered in other nations; for he does not seem yet to have understood that the gospel was to be preached to the Gentiles. See Acts 10: Yet the promise was equally applicable to the Gentiles as the Jews, and the apostles were afterward brought so to understand it, Acts 10; Rom 10:12, Rom 10:14-20; 11. The Gentiles are sometimes clearly indicated by the expression afar off Eph 2:13, Eph 2:17; and they are represented as having been brought nigh by the blood of Christ. The phrase is equally applicable to those who have been far off from God by their sins and their evil affections. To them also the promise is extended if they will return.

Even as many … – The promise is not to those who do not hear the gospel, nor to those who do not obey it; but it is to those to whom God in his gracious providence shall send it. He has the power and right to pardon. The meaning of Peter is, that the promise is ample, full, free; that it is suited to all, and may be applied to all; that there is no defect or lack in the provisions or promises, but that God may extend it to whomsoever he pleases. We see here how ample and full are the offers of mercy. God is hot limited in the provisions of his grace; but the plan is applicable to all mankind. It is also the purpose of God to send it to all people, and he has given a solemn charge to his church to do it. We cannot reflect but with deep pain on the fact that, although these provisions have been made – fully made; that they are adapted to all people; but that yet they have been extended by his people to so small a portion of the human family. If the promise of life is to all, it is the duty of the church to send to all the message of mercy.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Act 2:39

For the promise is unto you, and to your children.

Why Christianity has failed

1. One of the earliest and most vital errors into which the Church fell was the conception that the Churchs power is proportionate to her wealth.

2. The second great error of the Church was made when it began to depend upon political power as a means of effecting spiritual ends.

3. The third great error which has delayed the realisation of the blessings of Pentecost by the Universal Church has been the conception that education and culture could do the work of the Holy Spirit. Let us consider briefly what were the different features foreshadowed in this promise.

I. First and foremost, undoubtedly, was what we may term evangelistic power, the power of leading men to Christ, of so influencing them that they should abandon their sins and put their trust in a crucified Redeemer.

2. Closely allied with this element in the promise, and yet distinct from it, is the power of conquest which it involves. It is a remarkable fact–in many respects an incomprehensible fact–that Judaism, with all its great revelations of the truth, with all its wonderful striving after righteousness and its profound reverence for the unity of the Godhead, nevertheless, was by no means an aggressive religious force, and its converts at no time in its history were an important factor in its life. Mohammedanism spread by the power of the sword, and owed its victory to material, rather than to spiritual causes. Christianity, on the other hand, has ever spread, and will continue to spread, in virtue of a special power bestowed upon its apostles in answer to behoving prayer.

3. The next element in the promise is the element of boldness.

4. It only remains, in concluding our consideration of this subject, to point out with all emphasis that this promise was not limited to the apostles and their proximate or remote successors. (H. S. Lunn.)

The three covenants

I. The National covenant, to you.

II. The Family covenant, to your children.

III. The Universal covenant, to as many, etc. How wide was the outlook of the gospel upon the day of Pentecost. (M. C. Hazard.)

The promise of the Holy Ghost

Every dispensation has its present duties and privileges: it has also its peculiar promise; and according as men have apprehended the promise and the privileges, has been the ardour of their devotion.

1. In the patriarchal dispensation men had the privilege of presenting to God an accepted service, and living under His guidance and protection. But their promise was that the seed of Jacob should inherit the land of Canaan.

2. After the chosen people had been brought into their possession they were blessed with the privileges of the Mosaic code, and God gave them the promise of the Messiah. It was the privilege of the Israelite to take part in the worship of God with the feeling of holy anticipation that He would come whom their rites symbolised.

3. When Christ came He said that the privileges of His disciples were greater than those of the greatest man of the former dispensation, and gave them the promise of the Holy Ghost. This is the last promise characteristic of the last times; beyond this dispensation there will be no other, and its promise will be succeeded by no other. Notice–

I. Its nature. It implies that the Holy Ghost should be given.

1. For the official qualification of the preacher. The words suggest the exclusive power and right of Divine selection. I will pour out of My Spirit. The selection includes teachers of different grades in society and of both sexes. And for their qualification the Spirit is absolutely necessary. It is universally recognised that whatever else a man may possess, talent, power, wealth, or learning, he must possess the Spirit. This was taught by Christ when He said, Tarry ye at Jerusalem, etc.

(1) The Spirit was to give them correct views of truth, He will guide you into all truth. These right views are necessary to preserve men from heresy. All revivals in the history of the Church have been connected with the revival of spiritual truth. Witness Pentecost, Luther, the Puritans, Wesley, etc. The Word of God comes out with clearness and power, and error recedes before it.

(2) Something more, however, is needed than to be saved from heresy. The teacher must have spiritual views in relation to the Word of God such as those suggested by the expressions, lively word, the lively oracles, the unction of the Holy One. A man must not speak merely in a way free from inaccuracy; but his words must be clothed with energy breathed by the Holy Ghost, so that wherever they come they may communicate that power.

(3) The affections must be touched. There must be a yearning for souls which will not let the preacher rest unless they are brought to God.

(4) The Holy Ghost is necessary for the resistance of unworthy motives such as would lead men to court popularity and indulge spiritual pride.

(5) He only again is an effectual preservative against bigotry.

2. To dispose the heart of the hearer to derive full advantage from spiritual teaching. He

(1) convinces of sin.

(2) Inspires living faith.

(3) Regenerates.

(4) Bears witness to the believers adoption into Gods family.

(5) Preserves from sinning.

(6) Sanctifies.

(7) Consoles.

(8) Guides.

II. Its extent.

1. To you. All piety is out of place if it be not first of all practised at home. Your own salvation is of more importance to you than that of any one else. To save others and after all be lost yourself would greatly aggravate your misery.

2. To your children. These, next to yourself, should claim your most earnest attention. The man who devotes himself to others and n neglects his own family inverts the order of things. It is a monstrous evil to be engaged from early Sunday morning to late at night in a constant succession of services, and to have not a single half-hour to spare for ones own children.

3. To them that are afar off.

(1) Morally.

(2) Geographically.

(3) Chronologically. (S. D. Waddy, D. D.)

Christianity a religion of promise

I. The promise spoken of.

1. The promise of Christ which includes–

(1) The remission of sins through His atonement and merit.

(2) Full justification.

(3) Peace with God and our own conscience, Christ is our peace.

(4) Adoption into the family of God.

(5) Eternal life.

Think of these and other like blessings, and their connected hopes and consolations, and behold them all centred in Christ, Himself the great promise of the Old Testament, and then rejoice to receive Him for yourselves, and to recommend Him to others as the promise of revelation, the desire of all nations, and the consolation of Israel.

2. As Christ was preeminently the promise of the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit is pre-eminently the promise of the New. We are not to look for that miraculous agency which was given in apostolic days. This was not even then intended to supersede that ordinary gracious influence, which the Scripture declares to be essential to every one for the state of salvation. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His–Except a man be born again of water and of the Spirit, etc. Our Lord speaks of sending the Spirit as the promise of the Father. No promise can be more plainly expressed than this, Ask, and ye shall have; and it is in reference to the Holy Spirit that this promise is given. Christianity is the very dispensation of the Spirit; its whole life, energy, and beauty depend on the communication of spiritual influence. The promise of the Spirit, like that of the Saviour, includes many other promises.

(1) Repentance.

(2) Faith.

(3) A new heart and a right spirit.

(4) Strength in every season of weakness.

(5) Comfort in every trial.

(6) Joy amidst sorrow.

(7) Patience under tribulation.

(8) Perseverance amidst difficulty.

Christianity is throughout a religion of promise. It began with the first promise to fallen man; its promises expanded, like the stream of holy waters in the vision of Ezekiel, till, when the fulness of time was come, they formed that river of life which is rolling its salubrious tide throughout a thirsty world.

II. For whom is the promise meant?

1. The Jews; for St. Peters auditory consisted entirely of Jews. Our Lord confined His personal ministry to the Jews. I am not sent, He said, but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Sending forth His apostles at first, He said, Go not in the way of the Gentiles, etc. After His resurrection, when He enlarged their commission, so that its extent was to be the world, yet they were still to begin at Jerusalem; and in every city were first to address Jews, and then to turn to the Gentiles. And is there not encourage-anent for us, from the circumstance, that the Jews were to have the first offers of the promises of the gospel? There is this; the history of the Jews is a history of a most perverse, ungrateful, and rebellious people, who at length consummated their guilt by crucifying the Lord of life; yet to them first was the promise sent. Now surely that fact speaks volumes as to the freeness of the promise, as to the mercy of our God, as to the efficacy of the Redeemers merits.

2. The promise is unto you. If these brought joy home to the hearts of the Jews who heard the apostle, then surely His next words, And to your children, must have touched another like chord, or rather, the same chord over again; for hard must be that parents heart that does not rejoice quite as much in benefit to his children as in benefit to himself. Christianity most fully recognises that principle of natural affection, which the God of nature implanted in breasts of parents. The God of nature and the God of grace is one and the same. No sooner do parents discover the promise sent to themselves, than it says to them, I am sent unto you and to your children, introduce me to them, and them to me. I come to tell them that their fathers God is willing to be their God also. It is remarkable how the Scriptures throughout encourage the promotion of the training up of children in the knowledge and belief of the promises of God. For this Abraham was so commended, For I know him, that he will command his children, etc. This was the determination of Joshua. Let others choose as they may, as for me and my house we will serve the Lord. This was the lamentation of David. Although this mine house be not so with God. This was the pious study of the ancient Lois, and the maternal anxiety of Eunice, to train young Timothy in the knowledge of the Scriptures, which were able to make him wise unto salvation. This again was the care of Lydia, whose heart the Lord opened to attend to the things spoken by Paul, immediately after to have them addressed to her household also. The same was the effect on the jailer. Thus these examples from the Old and New Testament show that God encourages efforts to make known His promises to the young. What, then, can we think of parents who are anxious enough that their children should be well off for this world, should be accomplished, or learned, or rich–should form good connections, shine and sparkle in society, be admired and venerated in this world, but who have no care for their safety and happiness in the next?

3. To all that are afar off, this means the Gentiles. St. Paul, writing to Ephesians, gives the very best comment on these words of St. Peter, Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, etc. Thus the Gentries afar off from God, from peace, from hope, and from salvation: but Christ hath broken down the middle wall of partition between Jew and Gentile. The same God over all, is rich unto all that call upon Him. The same promise which sounded in the ears of the three thousand Jews on the day of Pentecost is now gone forth to the ends of the world. It is the voice of the good Shepherd seeking after His lost sheep; and is the promise of Himself and His Spirit to give us a full salvation. This promise is to be addressed to all; it has a message to every human being; and yet, though the outward call is thus general and universal, our text adds,

4. Even as many as the Lord our God shall call. Hence it is necessary well to understand, that beside the general call to be addressed to all, there must be the gracious and effectual calling of God. What the minister speaks to the ear, God speaks to the heart. The general call is so large, so rich, and so free, as to leave all without excuse who rest in the mere hearing of it with the ear, and do not seek to enter into it with their souls. The general call should stir us up to pray much for the gracious call. (J. Hambleton, M. A.)

The children may be converted

There was in my ancestral line an incident so strangely impressive that it seems more like romance than reality. It has sometimes been so inaccurately put forth that I now give you the true incident. My grandfather and grandmother, living at Somerville, New Jersey, went to Baskingridge to witness a revival, under the ministry of the Rev. Dr. Finney. They came home so impressed with what they had seen that they resolved on the salvation of their children. The young people of the house were to go off for an evening party, and my grandmother said, Now, when you are all ready for the party come to my room, for I have something very important to tell you. All ready for departure, they came to her room, and she said to them, Now, I want you to remember, while you are away this evening, that I am all the time in this room praying for your salvation, and I shall not cease praying until you get back. The young people went to the party, but amid the loudest hilarities of the night they could not forget that their mother was praying for them. The evening passed, and the night passed. The next day my grandparents heard an outcry in an adjoining room, and they went in and found their daughter imploring the salvation of the gospel. The daughter told them that her brothers were at the barn and at the waggon-house under powerful conviction for sin. They went to the barn. They found my uncle Jehiah, who afterwards became a minister of the gospel, crying to God for mercy. They went to the waggon-house. They found their son David, who afterwards became my father, imploring Gods pardon and mercy. Before a great while the whole family were saved; and David went and told the story to a young woman to whom he was affianced, who, as a result of the story, became a Christian, and from her own lips–my mother–I have received the incidents. The story of that converted household ran through all the neighbourhood, from family to family, until tim whole region was whelmed with religious awakening, and at the next communion in the village church at Somerville over two hundred souls stood up to profess the faith of the gospel. (T. De Witt Talmage.)

As many as the Lord our God shall call.—

Effectual calling

From whence observe–

I. That all men till called by God are afar off from Him.

1. In regard of the knowledge of God in a true and saving way. They are as little children, no more apprehensive in a right manner of God than the children in the dark are perceiving of the things of reason. Even Christians by birth are also far off from God till they have this spiritual eye-salve; and therefore in two respects men may be said to be far off from God.

(1) First, both in respect of inward grace and the outward means of salvation; and thus all the heathenish part of the world is afar off God.

(2) Or secondly, in respect of the inward grace only. When men do enjoy the outward means of salvation, and in this sense of their duties are said to draw nigh to God, but in respect of any saving work of grace are as far off as heathens and pagans; and this is the condition, as is to be feared, of many thousands. They are nigh God in respect of the Christian faith they profess in respect of the duties and ordinancies they exercise themselves in, but in respect of their affections and heart, so they are at as great distance from God and His holy ways as heathen and publicans. This distinction must be attended unto, that we do not vainly deceive ourselves as the Jews did with The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.

2. In respect of Gods special and gracious love to justify their persons to pardon their sins. Do not thou please thyself with the thought that thou hast free access to the presence and into the favour of great ones on earth; for if thou art far off from God, if He regard thee not, if His displeasure be towards thee, thou art in the state of gall and wormwood.

3. We are by nature afar off from Christ the Mediator between God and man. And this indeed is the foundation of all calamity; for as in Christ we are blessed with all heavenly blessings, so without Him we are cursed with all spiritual and temporal curses.

4. Such as are afar off have no hope. They are a hopeless people; which way soever they look everything curseth and condemneth them; and no marvel, for, if without the promise, they have not the ground of hope, and if without Christ, the object of hope.

5. Such are afar off in respect of God and an universal constant obedience to His holy will. As God loveth not them, so neither do they love God. As God is not gracious in His promises to them, so neither are they obedient to His precepts.

II. That not all of mankind, but some only, doth God call with a loving call. The apostle plainly makes a difference of these that are afar off, and this only to come from God; some are so afar off that they never hear the voice of God in the Word calling them to repent and believe in Christ. Others again have salvation brought unto their house; and if thou ask why God calls such and not others, do not curiously pry in this mystery; Gods ways are just, even when they are hidden to us. Too much gazing on this Sun may quickly blind us.

1. That there is a general and common invitation even of all in the world by God; and there is a special gracious one. The former invitation is by the creatures, by the works of God.

(1) This invitation and call by the creatures doth not nor cannot reveal anything of Christ, the only cause of salvation.

(2) The call by the creatures is not saving, because it discovers not the way of salvation no more than the cause–viz., faith.

(3) This call could not be saving, for the farthest and utmost effect it had upon men was only outwardly to reform their lives. But you may say, To what purpose is this call of God by the creatures and the work of His providence, if it be not to salvation? Yes, it is much every way.

(a) Hereby even all men are made inexcusable.

(b) Gods purpose in these calls is to restrain sin and to draw men on further than they do. There is no man that hath no more than this remote and confused call that doth what be may do and can do. He doth not improve, no, not that natural strength that is in him. I do not say to spiritual good things; for so he hath no natural strength, but to such objects as by nature he might. He wilfully runneth himself in the commit-ing of sins against his conscience and knowledge. Now God calleth by these natural ways to restrain him to put a bound to these waves. For if there were not these general convictions, no societies, no commonwealth could consist.

2. Take notice of a twofold saving calling. The one is only external and saving in respect of the ability and sufficiency; the other is saving effectually and in respect of the event.

3. That God doth not call all men with this saving, gracious call will evidently de facto appear if you consider the ways of God ever since there was a Church till now.

4. It is no injustice in God, though He does not give this universal call of grace to all men.

(1) If we could not satisfy the reason and disputes of men in this Divine dispensation, yet if the Scripture be clear in this point we must all stop our mouths and not gainsay. Doth not the apostle (Rom 9:1-33.) expressly bring these carnal reasonings? Who hath resisted His will? and why then doth He find fault? But see how he rebukes this unruliness in man, Who art thou, O man, that disputest against God? If then Scripture and experience saith thus much, we must conclude Gods ways are just, though hidden to us.

(2) Even reason enforced out of Scripture may satisfy us in many things; for it is no injustice in God if He had not called any man in the world with a gracious call; for seeing man by his fall had broken the covenant with God, all things became forfeited into His hand; He was not bound to set up man with a new stock after his first breaking.

(3) There can be no injustice where all that is done is done wholly out of grace and mere favour. The devil he thinks God is gracious too much and calls too many; he is tormented with malice because so many escape out of his jaws.

(4) Although God doth not call every man with this immediate call of grace, yet no man is damned merely because he wants this. The apostle saith, That those that are without the law [viz., written and revealed to them], shall be judged without the law. And thus those that are without the gospel, that have not the means of grace they shall not be judged because they did not believe in Christ, because they did not submit to Him, but because they did not walk in the practice of those things they did know.

(5) God is not unjust, no, not to those that are afar off, because none among them have done what they might do in a natural and moral way; for although no man hath power in a gracious manner to any spiritual good thing, yet they may restrain from the outward actings of many gross sins.

(6) Though God do not call all men, and thereby they are wholly impotent and unable to any good; yet they do not sin so much because they want power as because they have a willing delight in it; and this indeed doth mainly remove all objections; for it is not a mans impotency so much as his wilful consent to sin that damneth him. (A. Burgess.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 39. For the promise is unto you] Jews of the land of Judea: not only the fulfilment of the promise which he had lately recited from the prophecy of Joel was made to them, but in this promise was also included the purification from sin, with every gift and grace of the Holy Spirit.

To all that are afar off] To the Jews wherever dispersed, and to all the Gentile nations; for, though St. Peter had not as yet a formal knowledge of the calling of the Gentiles, yet, the Spirit of God, by which he spoke, had undoubtedly this in view; and therefore the words are added, even as many as the Lord our God shall call, i.e. all to whom, in the course of his providence and grace, he shall send the preaching of Christ crucified.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

For the promise is unto you; lest they should doubt of pardon and grace, their sin having been so great. St. Peter gives them a ground of hope, they being the descendants from Abraham, unto whom especially this was promised, Jer 31:34.

And to all that are afar off; that is, to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews, who were said to be a people near unto God, as the Gentiles were said to be afar off, Isa 57:19; Eph 2:13.

Even as many as the Lord our God shall call; vocation, whether external by the word only, or internal by the Spirit also, depends on the pleasure of God; but the same promises of pardon and acceptance upon repentance made unto the Jews, are as effectually to be trusted unto by any of the Gentiles, as by any formerly amongst the Jews.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

39. For the promiseof theHoly Ghost, through the risen Saviour, as the grand blessing of thenew covenant.

all afar offtheGentiles, as in Eph 2:17), but”to the Jew first.”

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Ver. 39 For the promise is unto you,…. Either of the Messiah, and salvation by him, which was particularly given forth to the people of the Jews; or of the remission of sins, which was a branch of the covenant made with the house of Israel, in a spiritual sense, even the whole household of God; or of the pouring forth of the Spirit: and this promise was not only to them, but to theirs, even to as many of them as belonged to the election of grace; and whom the Lord their God would effectually call by his grace, as the last and limiting clause of the text, and which is to be connected with every part of it, shows:

and to your children: this is the rather mentioned, because these awakened, and converted souls, were not only in great concern about themselves, for their sin of crucifying Christ, but were in great distress about their children, on whom they had imprecated the guilt of Christ’s blood, as upon themselves; the thought of which cut them to the heart, and made their hearts bleed, within them: wherefore to relieve them, and administer comfort to them in this their distress, the apostle informs them, that the promise of Christ, and of his grace, was not only to them, who were now called, but it was also to their children; to as many of them as the Lord God should call; and who are the children of the promise, which all the children of the flesh were not, Ro 9:6 and to these the promise should be applied, notwithstanding this dreadful imprecation of theirs:

and to all that are afar off; either in place, as those that were dispersed, among the several nations of the world; and so carried in it a comfortable aspect on the multitude of Jews, that were of every nation under heaven; or in time, who should live in ages to come; or else the Gentiles are intended, who were afar off from God and Christ, and the way of life and salvation by him; see Eph 2:12 even as many as the Lord our God shall call: not externally only, by the ministry of the word, but internally, by his grace and Spirit; with that calling, which is according to the purpose and grace of God, and is inseparably connected with eternal glory; the promise is to all such, and is made good to all such, whether they be Jews or Gentiles, fathers, or children, greater or lesser sinners. The Syriac version reads, “whom God himself shall call”.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

The promise ( ). The promise made by Jesus (1:4) and foretold by Joel (verse 18).

To you (). You Jews. To your descendants, sons and daughters of verse 17.

To all that are afar off ( . The horizon widens and includes the Gentiles. Those “afar off” from the Jews were the heathen (Isa 49:1; Isa 57:19; Eph 2:13; Eph 2:17). The rabbis so used it.

Shall call ( ). First aorist middle subjunctive with in an indefinite relative clause, a perfectly regular construction. The Lord God calls men of every nation anywhere whether Jews or Gentiles. It may be doubted how clearly Peter grasped the significance of these words for he will have trouble over this very matter on the housetop in Joppa and in Caesarea, but he will see before long the full sweep of the great truth that he here proclaims under the impulse of the Holy Spirit. It was a great moment that Peter here reaches.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

Afar off [ ] . Lit., unto a long way. Referring probably to the Gentiles, who are described by this phrase both in the Old and New Testaments. See Zec 6:15; Eph 2:11 – 13. Peter knew the fact that the Gentiles were to be received into the Church, but not the mode. He expected they would become Christians through the medium of the Jewish religion. It was already revealed in the Old Testament that they should be received, and Christ himself had commanded the apostles to preach to all nations.

Shall call [] . Rev. gives the force of prov, to : “shall call unto him.”

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “For the promise it unto you,” (humin gar estin he epangelia) “For the promise is (exists) to or toward you all,” as a Divine offer, without respect of persons. The offer is that of both salvation and the gift of the Holy Spirit as a comforter, and a guide to all who are saved and who will be baptized and follow the comforter and guide as He abides in and with them in and thru the church, Joh 15:16; Joh 14:16-17; 1Jn 3:13; Rom 8:14; Eph 3:21.

2) “And to your children,”(kai toisteknois humon) “And to your not yet responsible children,” to your immature offspring, those not having arrived at a personally responsible age. Salvation, and a call to service, in and thru the church, where the Holy Spirit dwells, leads, and guides, is available to all, Jew and Gentile, in this age, Joe 2:28; Act 10:43.

3) “And to all that are afar off,” (kai pasin tois eis makran) “And the promise is for, (exists toward) all those not having yet been born,” or toward those of generations to come. As a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night led Israel from Egyptian bondage into the Promised Land, so the Gift of the Holy Spirit, as a vice-gerant, empowering one, came to the church on Pentecost to be a comforter and guide into all truth till Jesus returns, Exo 13:20-22; Joh 14:26; Joh 16:13; Rom 8:14.

4) “Even as many as the Lord our God shall call,” (hosou an proskalesetai kurios ho theos hemon) “That is so many as the Lord our God may hereafter call.” This promise of covenant concerns not Israel, restrictedly, but to the Gentile world, to whom God speaks and witnesses in and thru the church, as he pours out His spirit upon all (all kinds) of flesh thru the witnessing of the church. Jesus chose the church, established it, purchased it with His own blood, empowered it to be His calling media till He comes again, Joh 15:16; Act 20:28; Act 15:13-17; Act 11:15; Act 11:18; Act 14:27; Act 15:3; Act 15:8; Act 15:15; Joe 2:28. The new covenant promise of Salvation for all and the overshadowing leadership of the Spirit in the church was offered to all flesh, for the first time.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

39. For the promise appertaineth unto you. It was requisite that this should be expressly added, that the Jews might certainly think and persuade themselves that the grace of Christ did belong as well to them as to the apostles. And Peter proveth it thus, because the promise of God was made unto them. For we must always look unto this, because [that] we cannot otherwise know the will of God save only by his word. But it is not sufficient to have the general word, unless we know that the same is appointed for us. Therefore Peter saith, that those benefits which they see in him and his fellows in office were in times past promised to the Jews; because this is required necessarily for the certainty of faith, that every one be fully persuaded of this, that he is comprehended in the number of those unto whom God speaketh. Finally, this is the rule of a true faith, when I am thus persuaded that salvation is mine, because that promise appertaineth unto me which offereth the same. And hereby we have also a greater confirmation, when as the promise is extended unto those who were before afar off. For God had made the covenant with the Jews, (Exo 4:22.) If the force and fruit thereof come also unto the Gentiles, there is no cause why the Jews should doubt of themselves, but that they shall find the promise of God firm and stable.

And we must note these three degrees, that the promise was first made to the Jews, and then to their children, and last of all, that it is also to be imparted to the Gentiles. We know the reason why the Jews are preferred before other people; for they are, as it were, the first begotten in God’s family, yea, they were then separated from other people by a singular privilege. Therefore Peter observeth a good order, when he giveth the Jews the pre-eminence. Whereas he adjoineth their children unto them, it dependeth upon the words of the promise: I will be thy God, and the God of thy seed after thee, (Gen 17:7,) where God doth reckon the children with the fathers in the grace of adoption.

This place, therefore, doth abundantly refute the manifest error of the Anabaptists, which will not have infants, which are the children of the faithful, to be baptized, as if they were not members of the Church. They espy a starting hole in the allegorical sense, (130) and they expound it thus, that by children are meant those which are spiritually begotten. But this gross impudency doth nothing help them. It is plain and evident that Peter spoke thus because God did adopt one nation peculiarly. And circumcision did declare that the right of adoption was common even unto infants. Therefore, even as God made his covenant with Isaac, being as yet unborn, because he was the seed of Abraham, so Peter teacheth, that all the children of the Jews are contained in the same covenant, because this promise is always in force, I will be the God of your seed.

And to those which are afar off. The Gentiles are named in the last place, which were before strangers. For those which refer it unto those Jews which were exiled afar off, (and driven) into far countries, they are greatly deceived. For he speaketh not in this place of the distance of place; but he noteth a difference between the Jews and the Gentiles, that they were first joined to God by reason of the covenant, and so, consequently, became of his family or household; but the Gentiles were banished from his kingdom. Paul useth the same speech in the second chapter to Ephesians, (Eph 2:11,) that the Gentiles, which were strangers from the promises, are now drawn near, through Jesus Christ, unto God. Because that Christ (the wall of separation being taken away) hath reconciled both (the Jews and Gentiles) unto the Father, and coming, he hath preached peace unto those which were nigh at hand, and which were afar off. Now we understand Peter’s meaning. For to the end he may amplify the grace of Christ, he doth so offer the same unto the Jews, that he saith the Gentiles are also partakers thereof. And therefore he useth this word call, as if he should say: Like as God hath gathered you together into one peculiar people heretofore by his voice, so the same voice shall sound everywhere, that those which are afar off may come and join themselves unto you, when as they shall be called by a new proclamation.

(130) “ Effugium in allegorico sensu captant,” they attempt evasion by giving an allegorical meaning.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(39) The promise is unto you, and to your children.The tendency of sects has always been to claim spiritual gifts and powers as an exclusive privilege limited to a few. It is the essence of St. Peters appeal that all to whom he speaks can claim the promise as fully as himself. The phrase those that are afar off, was probably wide enough to cover both the Jews of the Dispersion, to whom the Apostle afterwards wrote (1Pe. 1:1-2), and the heathen nations among whom they lived. The use of the phrase in Eph. 2:13; Eph. 2:17, inclines rather to the latter meaning.

Even as many as the Lord our God shall call.There seems, at first sight, a limitation on the universality of the previous words. And in some sense there is; but it is not more than is involved in the fact that spiritual knowledge and culture are not bestowed on all nations and ages alike. Wherever there is a difference, some possessing a higher knowledge and greater power than others, the Apostle could only see, not chance, or evolution, but the working of a divine purpose, calling some to special privileges, and yet dealing equitably with all.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

39. The promise The promise, of Act 2:21, that in the new age of Christ the Lord, all that call on him shall be saved; and hence the save yourselves of Act 2:40.

Unto you Even, emphatically, unto you, who (Act 2:36) have crucified this Lord. And, more abundantly, it dies not with you, but extends to your children, your offspring. Nor geographically is it limited to your lineage, but extends afar off; for that promise of salvation to all that call upon the Lord (Act 2:21) shall extend even to all that the Lord by his Gospel shall call. To ask whether this means Jews or Gentiles is an empty question; for the apostle has not race in view, and is thinking only of the extension of the Gospel invitation in its blessed but indefinite vastness. Good proof this that the apostles and their followers expected the conversion (and not the immediate destruction) of the world.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

“For to you is the promise, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call to him.”

Peter then reminds them that what he is declaring is what God had already promised them and speaks in such a way as to remind them of Isaiah’s prophecies. The promise is to them, and to their children, and to all who are afar off. These words echo the prophets (Isa 33:13; Isa 57:19; Eze 11:6; Joe 3:8; Mic 4:7; Zec 6:15 – the Jews scattered around the world – but compare Eph 2:13). To Peter at this time ‘afar off’ referred to the Jewish dispersion. To Luke, however, it meant all peoples (Act 22:21).

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Act 2:39. For the promise is unto you, &c. Considering that the gift of the Holy Ghost had been mentioned just before, it seems most natural to interpret this as a reference to the passage in Joel above recited, where God promises the effusion of the Spirit on their sons and their daughters: but if the promise be interpreted as referring to a remoter clause, the forgiveness of their sins, this whole verse must be taken in a greater latitude, as having respect to the encouragement which all future converts and their children had, to expect the benefits of the gospel. This passage makes much in favour of infant baptism, as many writers on the subject have largely shewn. Since St. Peter as yet knew nothing of the intended calling of the Gentiles, he could only mean by the words, to all afar off, that the gospel should be preached to all the dispersed of Israel, in distant nations; but the Spirit of God mighthave a further view. “The words (says Dr. Heylin) refer to time as well as place; the promises also to us and to our children: words which imply a benefit, include the accepting of it: in this sense the word call is used in this verse, and in 1Co 1:24 that is, they who obey the call.”

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Act 2:39 . Proof of the preceding . . .: for to you belongs the promise (concerned); yours it is , i.e. you are they in whom the promise (of the communication of the Spirit) is to be realized.

] to those who are at a distance , that is, to all the members of the Jewish nation, who are neither dwellers here at Jerusalem, nor are now present as pilgrims to the feast, both Jews and Hellenists. Comp. also Baumgarten. Others, with Theophylact, Oecumenius, Erasmus, Calvin, Piscator, Grotius, Wolf, Bengel, Heinrichs, de Wette, Lange, Hackett, also Weiss, Petr. Lehrbegr. p. 148, and bibl. Theol. p. 149, explain it of the Gentiles . Comp. Eph 2:13 . But, although Peter might certainly conceive of the conversion of the Gentiles, according to Isa 2:2 ; Isa 49:1 , al. , in the way of their coming to and passing through Judaism, yet the mention of the Gentiles here (observe the emphatically preceding ) would be quite alien from the destination of the words, which were intended to prove the . . . of Act 2:38 . The conversion of the Gentiles does not here belong to the matter in hand . Beza, whom Casaubon follows, understood it of time (2Sa 7:19 , comp. the classical ): longe post futuros , but this is excluded by the very conception of the nearness of the Parousia.

As to the expression of direction , ., comp. on Act 22:5 .

. . . .] contains the definition of : as many as God shall have called to Himself , namely, by the preaching of the gospel, by the reception of which they, as members of the true theocracy, will enter into Christian fellowship with God , and will receive the Spirit.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

IX

THE GIFT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

THE HABIT OF THE EARLY CHURCH

Act 2:39-3:1

So now we take up Act 2:39-3:1 for exposition. The closing part of Act 2:38 says, “And ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit,” and Act 2:39 , “For to you is the promise and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call unto him.” I take that last clause of Act 2:38 “Ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” because of its connection with the succeeding verse; and so the question arises what is meant by the gift of the Holy Spirit? Does it mean the ordinary graces of the Spirit, such as men received before Pentecost, and are receiving now, and have been receiving through all the history of the world, i.e., the convicting power of the Spirit, repenting power of the Spirit, and believing power of the Spirit? No, it does not mean that. The promise refers to the prophecy of Joel: “It shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour forth of my Spirit upon all flesh,” and then this baptism in the Spirit is described. Peter says to the convicted men of Israel: “You have witnessed our reception of the baptism of the Spirit; you have seen its effect on us. Now, if you will repent and believe, and be baptized, ye shall receive that gift.” He goes on to say, “For the promise is to you and to your children, and unto all that are afar off,” limited by just so many as God shall call to receive it.

Joel says, “I will pour forth of my Spirit upon all flesh,” i.e., all kinds of people old men, young men, maidens, the promise is unto you, fathers, and unto you, children of the fathers, and unto you that come from a great distance, afar off, whether of the dispersion of the Jews, or of the Gentiles. The “afar off” refers to all of those. “After your conversion, these signs shall follow them that believe” that which comes after the baptism in the Holy Spirit. You who then will repent, who will believe, you shall receive the same thing that you wonder at in these. In Act 2 Peter says, “Who was I, that I could withstand God?” And seeing that these Gentiles received the same gift which they had at the beginning, while he was talking to Cornelius and his household, the Spirit fell upon Cornelius and his household, and he began to speak with tongues. Peter says, “It was the same gift that came to us on Pentecost.” So in Act 19 , when Paul asked certain disciples he found there, “Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed?” he is asking if, upon their part, they have been baptized in the Spirit. That is what he means exactly. That being the meaning of the word “gift” in the passage, “ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit,” because it was promised to them and to their children, and to just as many as God should call.

It means that the number of people to receive this baptismal power of the Spirit was limited to just as many as the Lord our God should call to receive it.

He could limit it to some Jews on the day of Pentecost, to some Gentiles afterward, as in the case of Cornelius; to some at Corinth, to some at Ephesus, and long enough to fully accredit the church before his call on that was brought to a stop just as many as he would call.

Is now expound Act 2:42 , particularly giving the four services that constituted the habit of the early church. The King James Version says, “And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.” From that translation we get the idea that to continue steadfastly in the apostle’s doctrine is to remain firm in the faith. That is not at all the thought of the original, however. They were constant in attending upon the following things: The teaching of the apostles, the breaking of bread, fellowship, and prayers. They were constantly attending or they were constant in attending upon the teaching of the apostles, who kept on with their teaching. It is the object of that verse to express a habit of the early church a habit of continual attention to the following things: (1) Public worship; (2) the contribution worship (for that is what fellowship here means) ; (3) the Lord’s Supper worship; (4) the prayer meeting worship.

Let us put that into a little plainer English. If God converts my soul and I believe in Jesus my Saviour, the habit of my life must be along the line of that faith; and inasmuch as God has appointed the public services of his church, I will be constant in my attendance upon those services. I won’t stay away half the Sundays. If public worship is appointed by the congregation for every Sunday, then unless providentially hindered, I will be there at those services. Then in order to carry on the kingdom of God, if contribution services are appointed, I won’t skip those on the days appointed, whatever they may be, few or many; if observing the Lord’s Supper, I won’t stay from that. The meetings appointed for prayer, I will attend. That is the true sense of the Greek. It is one of the finest themes upon which any preacher can preach. Here were 3,000 people happily converted. They were brought into a new covenant, and these young converts were constantly attending all the public teaching of the apostles.

This is the literal Greek: “And they were stedfastly continuing on the teaching of the apostles”; “and they were stedfastly continuing koinonia ,” which has several meanings. Of course it expresses the idea of participation, and hence we sometimes use it in the sense of fellowship; they were constantly attending upon the “contributions.”

The necessity for those constant contributions is seen from the context. The record says twice, epi to auto all who believed were epi to auto , i.e., together; they were at the same place, and there were thousands of them there. There people were in a great revival meeting. The meetings were held every day. Some came from a distance, and there were necessary expenses involved in keeping that great crowd of people epi to auto at the same place; and therefore there had to be a distribution of rations. They had to be fed, just as when we hold a big meeting a camp meeting and the people gather to stay through the meeting. From twenty to thirty miles around they came epi to auto , “together,” or “at the same place.” One brother says, “I will furnish so and so,” so many hogs, for instance; another so many beeves, and another so much money, as in this case in Acts where the contributions were necessary. They had all things common.

They took those funds for the support of that meeting into a common fund, under the conditions of that great gathering, and they were held together at one place, just as we get a large sum of money, etc., for the camp meetings of today, barrels of ice water with cups, thus having meals all together. A long table is spread, and everything cooked is placed upon it. We have often seen that kind of a thing great crowds of people coming together, having their meals, not separately, but “together.” And in order that this big crowd be held together, some man was so full of the Spirit of God that he said, “To the end that this meeting may go on, I will bring all I have here and put it in the general fund.” Later on we strike the account of that man doing it. But I am trying to show the force of epi to auto , together, or at the same place. It is a question of that pronoun reference, as to what “at the same place” means. That would put them together; therefore the word “together” should be translated, “that place,” because they were at the same place. Therefore they were together. Many times in the New Testament the word which is translated fellowship evidently means contribution. I have not space to recite all the passages. We come to a number of them in the New Testament.

It was a great task to care for such a vast congregation, even for one day. The believers numbered 3,000, and a little later 5,000, not counting the women and children. Later still, it included a very great number, such as Greeks, and still later, when the disciples were multiplying and kept multiplying, there arose a complaint concerning the distribution of the provision for that great camp meeting, because some did not get enough, and did not get anything to eat. I have seen at camp meetings the bread or beef give out, and some of the crowd could not get to the table before it gave out.

This situation in the early church led to the appointment of deacons. The apostles said, “It is not reason that we should quit our preaching, our ministry, of the word, and go around and see that these people are fed, that this great volume of food is equally distributed. It is all here common. You must appoint somebody to take charge of this. We cannot stop to serve tables. We have to attend to the preaching and prayer meetings to the ministry of the word and of prayer. That is our special charge, so you bring business men here who can attend to that.”

It was characteristic of those young converts, who were coming by the thousands, to continually attend all the public services the preaching services, the contribution services for the support of the meeting, the services for observing the Lord’s Supper, and the prayer meeting services.

We used to have a big horn, a conch shell, a trumpet or a triangle, anything that would give a loud sound, at our big meetings, to announce the services as commencing. They would have a sunrise prayer meeting, a nine o’clock prayer service, a ten o’clock song service, an eleven o’clock preaching service, and then an afternoon service.

Next, in order that these young people and all new converts who were being brought into the church might be introduced to the ordinances of God, they would have the Lord’s Supper. Note that it is said of these converts that they formed four habits: Constant attendance on the preaching service, on the contribution service, the observance of the Lord’s Supper, and on the prayer service. And when you get a church to do that you have a power.

I preached on that text at a great meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention. The most distinguished Baptists in the United States, and the most learned theological seminary professors, the presidents and professors of literary institutions, the great evangelists and missionaries, at home and abroad, some of them white-headed, just ready to go away to God, were present. I presented these four points as the points of power in the church: Constant attendance on these four services that if a man wouldn’t dodge the preaching, nor the giving, nor the prayer meeting, nor the observance of the Lord’s Supper, he would not be very apt to backslide, but would keep in line. But if he was willing to attend the prayer service, and shut his eyes when the contribution plate was passed around, singing, “Fly abroad, thou mighty gospel,” and yet put in nothing to make its wings flap, he convicted himself. He was leaving out one of God’s appointed methods of worship. Now we are enabled to interpret the next thing.

“And all who believed were epi to auto , ‘at the same place,’ ‘together’; epi to auto kai eichon hapanta koina , and had all things common.” This passage of scripture has given rise to the doctrine called “the community of goods.” There are men now who say, “Let every one of us, whether rich or poor, put into a common pile everything we have, and then each one take out enough to sustain him every day.” That is the key passage of the Scholastics. But is it the intent of this passage (Act 2:44 ) to teach what is commonly understood as “community of goods,” i.e., if one has $10,000 worth of property, another $5,000, and another $2,000, does this passage require you to lump in your money and to ride out even?

It does not, and here is the proof. I am going to show that there is no law here establishing what is understood as a community of goods. In order to do that I will turn a little forward, where the same matter comes up again. In Act 4:34 we have this account: “For neither was there among them any that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them at the apostle’s feet: and distribution was made unto each, according as any one had need. And Joseph, a Levite, having a field, sold it, and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet. But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira, his wife, sold a possession, and kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles’ feet. But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thy heart to lie to the Holy Spirit, and to keep back part of the price of the land? While it remained, did it not remain thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thy power?” This shows that his private ownership had not departed from him. It was not the object of the scriptures concerning this great lesson to teach that private ownership was done away with at all. It was a voluntary thing, done under the impulse of the great meeting that was going on to take care of all those people, to keep them together, epi to auto at the same place. A man did not have to sell his property; he was not obliged to do it; but if he felt prompted to do it, in order that the meeting would not stop, he was not afraid to do it. But if he sold his land the money was still his; there was no law that required him to bring it all. But Ananias and Sapphira claimed that they had put it all in, but they had kept back part, telling a lie about it to God, or to the Holy Spirit, as if he did not know. They wanted to have the reputation that Joseph had, who sold all he had and brought the whole of it and put it into the fund. So they sold a piece of land, conspired together to fool Peter and to fool God that they would go and say that they had received so much and that was all of it. But Peter says, “Ananias, that property was yours before you sold it, and after you sold it the money was still yours. Your offense is, then, that you said, ‘We received for it so much and put the whole of it into the common fund.’ ” So that Ananias’ case disproves any idea of “common property.”

I will illustrate it: In the Madera Mountains, at the headquarters of the warlike tribe of the Comanche Indians, for many generations there has been a beautiful valley, plenty of water and plenty of grass, and when the moon is at its full, it is one of the best places in the world for holding a meeting. So every year they make great provision for a meeting. They say, “F. W. Johnson, what will you do towards it?” He says, “I’ll give ten beeves, and so many sheep.” Another says so many quilts, another a big table, so that anybody may be invited to come. The crowd is too big to make it all into one table, however, and there is no time to average just what they give, but what they do bring there is “common.” You step up to F. W. Johnson, or to W. D. Cowan, who are the main supporters of that meeting. You have just come, maybe a stranger riding horseback, and you say, “I’d like to have a place to sleep tonight blankets, etc.” “We have it for you,” these brethren say; “just come here; everything is ‘common.’ ” Now that did not mean that Johnson sold all he had and put it in, but for the purpose in view it was truly a common affair.

There is a change from the American Version in the Revised Version of Act 2:47 and Act 3:1 which is a textual matter. Let us compare these two versions. The last verse of the chapter of the American Version reads: “Praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.” The Revised Version says, “Praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to them day by day those that were being saved.” Is there any church in it? No; “to them,” epi tois , or epi to auto the same phrase again. “And the Lord added” to the same crowd, the same place, daily such as were being saved. In the best of the Greek manuscripts the word “church,” does not appear, but the Revised Version takes that epi to auto from the first verse in the next chapter and puts it there. In other words, Act 3 begins epi to auto , and joins it together. “Now Peter and John were going up to the temple.” We have no “together” in the Revised Version, and the revised is correct. It follows the true original manuscript. The “together” of Act 3:1 in the American Version belongs to Act 2:47 , and this word “together” should be put there in the place of the word “church.” The idea of the church is there. It was one church.

Is interpret this passage according to the Revised Version. Some later manuscripts give the idea as “church” by putting that word in, just like they put it in once before in the same chapter, where “church” does not occur, though the idea of church is there. It was an immensely big church. Before they got through, the way Is count it, there were 100,000 members right in Jerusalem, and the crowd just kept gathering by the thousands every day. It swelled and swelled, got bigger and bigger, all of the apostles preaching. Just like we would say, “Brother A. preaches in the First Church at 9 o’clock; Brother B. at the Second Church at the same hour, and Brother C. in the Tabernacle, while Brother D. will hold forth in the Court House.” All over the town that great multitude gathered and had preaching. They were brought there and held together by the power of that meeting. If the reader would like to do a little private work, let him take an English-Greek concordance, and translate the word “fellowship” and see its relation to money. You will see that here it means participation in a money meeting, that is, a fellowship meeting. They had fellowship in the public services; fellowship in giving money’ participation in the giving of money; they had fellowship when the Lord’s Supper was observed; they participated m the prayer meeting, and everybody took part.

QUESTIONS 1. What is meant by the “gift of the Holy Spirit” in Act 2:38 ?

2. To whom was the gift limited?

3. Expound Act 2:42 , particularly giving the four services that constituted the habit of the early church.

4. Why was it necessary for those constant contributions?

5. What church office was instituted here, and what the circumstances of its institution?

6. What was characteristic of the young converts in the Pentecost meeting?

7. Is it the intent of Act 2:44 to teach what is commonly understood as “Community of Goods”? What the proof?

8. What illustration by the author of the scriptural idea of having things “common”?

9. What change from the Authorized Version found in the Revised Version of Act 2:47 ; Act 3:1 , and what is the true idea of the passage?

10. Interpret this passage according to the Revised Version.

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

39 For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.

Ver. 39. Even as many ] The devil sweeps all (of maturity) that are not called, as out of the covenant.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

39. ] . , viz. as included in the prophecy cited Act 2:17 , your little ones: not, as in ch. Act 13:32 , ‘ your descendants ,’ which would be understood by any Jew to be necessarily implied . [Thus we have a providential recognition of Infant Baptism at the very founding of the Christian Church.]

, the Gentiles; see Eph 2:13 . There is no difficulty whatever in this interpretation. The Apostles always expected the conversion of the Gentiles, as did every pious Jew who believed in the Scriptures. It was their conversion as Gentiles , which was yet to be revealed to Peter. It is surprising to see such Commentators as Dr. Burton and Meyer finding a difficulty where all is so plain. The very expression, ., shews in what sense Peter understood .; not all , but as many as the Lord our God ., shall summon to approach to Him, bring near , which, in his present understanding of the words , must import by becoming one of the chosen people, and conforming to their legal observances .

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Act 2:39 . : the promise was made to the very men who had invoked upon themselves and upon their children, St. Mat 27:25 , the blood of the Crucified. See Psalms of Solomon , Act 8:39 (Ryle and James’ edition, p. 88). : no occasion with Wendt and others to limit the words to the Jews of the Diaspora. It must not be forgotten that the Apostles were not surprised that the Gentiles should be admitted to the Christian Church, but only that they should be admitted without conforming to the rite of circumcision. If we compare Act 3:26 , and Eph 2:13 ; Act 2:17 ( cf. Rom 10:13 ), it would seem that no restriction of race was placed upon the declaration of the Gospel message, provided that it was made to the Jew first (as was always Paul’s custom). Hilgenfeld interprets the words as referring beyond all doubt to the Gentiles, since had already expressed the Diaspora Jews. But he contends that as Act 2:26 plainly intimates that the address was delivered only to Israelites, the words in question are added by “the author to Theophilus”. He therefore places them in brackets. Jngst in the same way thinks it well to refer them to the Redactor, and Feine refers them to Luke himself as Reviser. Weiss sees in the words an allusion to an O.T. passage which could only have been applied at first to the calling of the Gentiles, but which (in the connection in which it is here placed by the narrator) must be referred to the Jews of the Diaspora. It may well have been that (as in Holtzmann’s view) St. Peter’s audience only thought of the Jews of the Diaspora, but we can see in his words a wider and a deeper meaning, cf. Isa 5:26 , and cf. also Isa 2:2 , Zec 6:15 . Among the older commentators Oecumenius and Theophylact referred the words to the Gentiles. . Wendt presses the to favour his view that St. Peter thinks only of the Jews and not of the Gentiles, since he speaks of “our God,” but Blass catches the meaning much better in his comment: “ Israelitarum, qui idem gentes ad se vocat”. This gives the true force of ., “shall call unto him” (so R.V.). Oecumenius also comments on the words as revealing the true penitence and charity of Peter, , .

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

children. App-108.

afar off. Literally unto (Greek. eis) far, i.e. the Dispersion and then the Gentiles. Compare Act 22:21. Eph 2:13, Eph 2:17. Figure of speech Euphemismos. App-6.

call = call to (Himself).

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

39.] ., viz. as included in the prophecy cited Act 2:17, your little ones: not, as in ch. Act 13:32, your descendants, which would be understood by any Jew to be necessarily implied. [Thus we have a providential recognition of Infant Baptism at the very founding of the Christian Church.]

, the Gentiles; see Eph 2:13. There is no difficulty whatever in this interpretation. The Apostles always expected the conversion of the Gentiles, as did every pious Jew who believed in the Scriptures. It was their conversion as Gentiles, which was yet to be revealed to Peter. It is surprising to see such Commentators as Dr. Burton and Meyer finding a difficulty where all is so plain. The very expression, ., shews in what sense Peter understood .; not all, but as many as the Lord our God ., shall summon to approach to Him,-bring near,-which, in his present understanding of the words, must import-by becoming one of the chosen people, and conforming to their legal observances.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Act 2:39. , unto you) This denotes more than if he had said, The promise is yours. Comp. Luk 2:11, Unto you is born, etc., a Saviour.-, is) stands forth fulfilled: ch. Act 3:25-26, Act 13:32-33.- , the promise) of this gift.-, to all) and therefore not to the apostles alone.- , who are afar off) The LXX. Isa 57:19, . The apostles sometimes touched slightly upon mysteries, the fuller declaration of which was afterwards about to go forth to the world through themselves: and in the meanwhile touched upon them in such words as marvellously corresponded both to the language of the Old Testament and to their own present feeling or sense, which was a true sense, but not as yet the full one, and to the Divine intention, which was about to declare itself further through them. In this passage the Holy Spirit spake through Peter such things as to the admission of the Gentiles speedily, in a large number, and without circumcision (with which comp. Eph 2:13), as Peter himself afterwards in ch. 10 did not at once perceive (apprehend): and yet his words were in accordance with Isaiah; and even these words here are suited to that sense which he afterwards understood. All the words of Scripture are most skilfully chosen. As to the fact signified, weigh well the word first in ch. Act 3:26, Unto you, in the first instance, God, having raised up His Son Jesus, sent Him. Rom 2:10, Of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile: Act 15:10, Rejoice ye Gentiles with His people: Eph 2:19, You who were afar off are fellow-citizens with the saints (the Jew-Christians), Act 3:6, That the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs. At the same time there is a Euphemism in the fact, that the name, Gentiles (so offensive to Jewish ears), is not introduced.- , …, whomsoever, etc.) The LXX. have in Joel, ch. quoted in Act 2:17 [Joe 2:32].-) shall call to Himself. This is the force of the verb in the middle.-) the Lord.- , our God) the God of us all.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

the promise: Act 3:25, Act 3:26, Gen 17:7, Gen 17:8, Psa 115:14, Psa 115:15, Jer 32:39, Jer 32:40, Eze 37:25, Joe 2:28, Rom 11:16, Rom 11:17, 1Co 7:14

and to all: Act 10:45, Act 11:15-18, Act 14:27, Act 15:3, Act 15:8, Act 15:14, Isa 59:19, Eph 2:13-22, Eph 3:5-8

as many: Joe 2:32, Rom 8:30, Rom 9:24, Rom 11:29, Eph 1:18, Eph 4:4, 2Th 1:11, 2Th 2:13, 2Th 2:14, 2Ti 1:9, Heb 3:1, Heb 9:15, 1Pe 5:10, 2Pe 1:3, 2Pe 1:10, Rev 17:14, Rev 19:9

Reciprocal: Gen 7:1 – Come Gen 17:18 – O that Exo 20:6 – showing Deu 29:15 – also with him Deu 30:19 – that both thou Jos 4:6 – when your Ezr 8:21 – for our little ones Psa 25:13 – his seed Psa 69:36 – The seed Psa 112:2 – General Pro 11:21 – the seed Pro 20:7 – his children Isa 44:3 – pour my Isa 57:19 – Peace Isa 65:23 – for Zec 6:15 – they Zec 10:7 – yea Zec 10:9 – live Mat 19:13 – brought Mat 28:19 – baptizing Mar 10:14 – Suffer Luk 14:17 – his Luk 15:20 – But Luk 18:16 – Suffer Joh 4:53 – and himself Act 2:33 – he Act 2:47 – the Lord Act 5:32 – whom Act 8:37 – If Act 10:36 – word Act 11:14 – all Act 16:31 – Believe Act 19:2 – Have ye Rom 4:24 – for us Rom 9:4 – promises Gal 3:14 – through Eph 2:17 – and preached

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

9

The promise that is meant may be learned from the companion passage in chapter 3:25, where Peter is speaking on the same subject, but where he calls it “the covenant.” It was first made to Abraham (Gen 12:3), and concerned both Jews and Gentiles. That is why our present verse says it is to all that are afar off. That same phrase is used in Ephestans 2:17, where the context plainly indicates that it means the Gentiles. The promise was that both Jew and Gentile were to be offered the blessing of salvation through Christ, who was the promised descendant of Abraham.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Act 2:39. For the promise is unto you. The promise contained in the prophecy of Joel, viz. the miraculous gifts and influences of the Spirita characteristic, as far as regards the miraculous gifts, of the first days of the age of Messiah.

And to your children. Hackett explains your children as signifying your posterity; better, however, with Alford to limit it to your little ones.

And to all that are afar off. Three explanations of this are given(a) Reference to place, to all the Jews who do not dwell in Jerusalem or the Holy LandHebrews and Hellenists. (b) Reference in point of time. The promise is not only to you but to your descendants far down the stream of time, (c) To the Gentiles. Of these, (c) is undoubtedly the one to be preferred, as the expression, an Old Testament one (Zec 6:15; Isa 49:1; Isa 57:19), is constantly used to describe the Gentiles. The rabbinic writers also employ it as synonymous with the heathen (Schottgen quoted by Hackett); see also St. Paul, Eph 2:13; Eph 2:17. The admission of the Gentiles into the Church of the future, although as a fact never contemplated with gratification by the exclusive Hebrew nation, was yet constantly taught with more or less distinctness by these prophets (see Mic 4:1; Amo 9:12; Isa 2:2-3, etc.; comp. also the note on Act 2:17).

Even as many as the Lord our God shall call. An expression like this, a recorded saying of an inspired apostle, leads to the certain conclusion that in the wise counsels of God some are called, while others are left out of the divine invitation. It is not for us to argue on the justice or wisdom of Him whose ways are not our ways, nor His thoughts our thoughts, when He deals as He pleases with His creatures. That such a course of action is strictly analogous to what we see of the distribution of health and life, power and means, among men, is too plain. One solemn lesson, however, lies on the surface. Awful is the responsibility which attaches itself to those whom the Lord our God shall call. Woe be to them if they neglect the blessed invitation. With the fate of those who are not called, we have nothing to do. Only we may rest assured that our God, who in His eternal wisdom has placed no choice before them, is a Master ever tender and loving.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

39. Peter does not limit the promise of the Holy Spirit to his present audience; but adds, (39) “For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” That we are right in referring the word promise, in this sentence, to the promise of the Holy Spirit just made by Peter, is evident from the fact that this is the only promise made in the immediate context.

Some pedobaptist commentators have affected to find in the words, “The promise is to you and your children,” a show of authority for infant membership in the Church of Christ. But Mr. Barnes, though of that school himself, has the candor to say of this expression, “It does not refer to children as children, and should not be adduced to establish the propriety of infant baptism, or as applicable particularly to infants. It is a promise, indeed, to parents, that the blessings of salvation shall not be confined to parents, but shall be extended also to their posterity.” That this is the true conception of the apostle’s meaning is demonstrated by the fact that the promise in question is based upon the conditions of repentance and immersion, with which infants could not possibly comply.

The extension of this promise “to all who are afar off,” is not to be limited to all the Jews who were afar off; but it is properly qualified by the additional words, “even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” It included, therefore, every individual who should, at any future time, be a subject of the gospel call, and guarantees to us, of the present generation, the gift of the Holy Spirit upon the same terms on which it was offered to Peter’s hearers on the day of Pentecost.

Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)

FOR ALL AGES AND NATIONS

39. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to you who are afar off, so many as the Lord our God may call. This verse is positive, unequivocal and unmistakable, confirmatory of the great New Testament truth that the promise of the personal incarnated Holy Ghost appertains to every human being on the globe whom the Lord may call by His Word, Spirit and Providence to come and participate in the glorious gospel feast, now ready and free to every fallen son or daughter of Adams ruined race. While the concession of Gods pardoning mercy, extended to all, is generally conceded, ecclesiastical autocrats and theological heretics pertinaciously repudiate the second great work of grace, i. e., the reception of the personal Holy Ghost as an indwelling Sanctifier and Comforter. Not only is this verse clear and unequivocal, but Peter at the house of Cornelius and in his testimony before the apostles at Jerusalem most unequivocally certifies that the Gentiles received the same identical spiritual enduement which the apostles received on the day of Pentecost. While these Scriptures are so positive, clear and conclusive as to preclude the possibility of misapprehension and leave no conceivable apology for cavil; yet it is a significant fact that bold heretics this day from Dan to Beersheba are persistently and indefatigably laboring to convince the people that no one but the apostles ever did receive the Holy Ghost, whereas a hundred and eight of the original disciples who received Him on the first morning of Pentecost were not apostles, and a number of them were women. Why do these bold heretics labor so hard and so persistently to flatly and positively contradict and refute the plain and unmistakable Word of God? Brother Godbey, what is heresy? And who is a heretic? The original meaning of heresy is to separate; thence a heretic is one who separates himself from God and takes issue with God; while heresy is doctrine dissimilar to Gods Word and out of harmony with it. The martyrs were all stigmatized heretics and burnt for heresy, because they separated from the corrupt clergy and the fallen church. If you will retain in your mind the definition of heresy, i. e., separation from something, the analysis is plain and easy. When a church becomes corrupt and heretical because it is separated from God, it invariably falls into the hands of carnal ecclesiastical autocrats and despots who are ready to persecute all who dare to separate from them. You must not forget that Satan is the great counterfeiter and counterfeits all truth. He calls evil good and good evil; hell, heaven, and heaven, hell; and calls himself God, and he is the god of this poor fallen world (2Co 4:4). His intelligence so far transcends that of every human being as to enable him to cunningly manipulate the greatest intellectualists and the most profound scholars. He has but one available competitor, and that is God.

So infinite is the devils intellectual perspicacity above that of all human beings that he has no trouble to radically and completely deceive all classes from the simpleton to the philosopher, from the barbarian to the most scholarly theologian on the globe. Hence the only possible availability against his devices is to receive the light, wisdom, word and personal incarnation of the Holy Ghost. So long as He dwells in you, though you be an illiterate Hottentot, you will prove more than a match for an army of devils. If you let God conquer you, capture and move into you, you can then conquer the world, the flesh and the devil. If you do not let God conquer you, you can be conquered by most insignificant things, e. g., a filthy old cigar, the sickening quid or the nauseating old pipe, or almost any other silly and senseless device of the devil. As an independency, man never has stood and never will. The devil puffs him up with egotism and inflates him with the silly delusion of personal independency, merely that he may gouge his eyes out, wrap him around his black fingers, toss him for a foot-ball, the sport of demoniacal millions to kick around the black walls of hell through all eternity. Since the Fall, Satan has been the god of this world, and so few people have been acquainted with God that the leaders of church and state, blinded by the fogs of hell and led away by the sophistries of the pit, have literally developed a general tergiversation of the maxims and dogmata of all ages and nations, political and ecclesiastical.

The devil takes the very phraseology of the Bible, radically perverting and cunningly manipulating it to the damnation of the superstitious votaries of religion. Consequently the devils deluded ecclesiastical tyrants in all ages have hounded, persecuted and martyred the children of God under the vociferous and odious imputation of heresy. As heresy means separation, and the saints of God could not be true to Him without separating from the wicked rulers of fallen ecclesiasticisms, of course they were heretics from their standpoint but not in the sight of God and the light of His Word. With the above exposition of Satans counterfeit applications and interpretations of heresy and heretics, you are prepared to put your eye on Jesus and His Word and receive the true interpretation of heresy and see who the actual heretic is. God alone is true and right. Hence all spiritual leaders who separate from Him are heretics in the divine estimation and in the light of all Christian intelligence. Since the Bible is the only book of truth in all the world, other books only being true so far as they harmonize with it, therefore all departure from Gods revealed Word is heresy. During the first three centuries, while martyrdom was the order of the day, the expectation of every Christian and the glory of the church, there never was a schism. When the Emperor Constantine professed the Christian religion and suddenly elevated the despised, down-trodden, persecuted church from the lions mouth and the burning stake to the palace of the Caesars, they immediately assembled in the council at Nice, Bythinia, the Emperor Constantine presiding over the council, sitting in a golden chair. They proceeded to make a human creed, thus formulating the celebrated Nicene Creed, the prolific mother of all the creeds of Christendom, which have multiplied upon the face of the earth like the Grecian warriors springing up from the dragons teeth sown by Cadmus. The martyrs were burnt for disharmony with the creed interpreted by the sinister policy of a corrupt clergy. When the holiness people go into creed-making the shroud of the grand movement is ready for her interment. Every deflection from the plain Word of God is heresy. The Old Testament abounds in beautiful and instructive symbolisms, all of which are literalized in the New. Hence the New Testament, in whose dispensation we live and which really contains all the truth of the Old, focalized, literalized, verified and elucidated, is the creed of Christendom. It is plainer and more easily understood than any of the human creeds. Hence there is no apology for their existence. If your creed is in harmony with the Bible you can well afford to drop it and use the Bible. If it is out of harmony with the Bible, throw it away quickly or the devil will get you. A sectarian is the devotee of a human creed, whether written or unwritten. He is a poor, deluded idolater, worshipping a silly, pusillanimous human dogma, hatched in the bottomless pit and propagated on earth for the delusion and damnation of souls. Any man will die for his god, whether he be a Christian martyr, worshipping the true God in heaven and earth, or a bloodthirsty Mussulman, worshipping the false prophet, or the Pagan devotee of Brahma, Buddha, Grand Llama or Foh. The present age is awfully cursed with human heresies. Our Savior describes them, compassing sea and land to make one proselyte, simultaneously making him two-fold more the child of hell! Well said, because they have no power to take away his old sins: all they can do is to administer to him the rites and ceremonies of theirs, persuading him that he is a Christian when he is not, thus making him a hypocrite as well as a sinner, and doubling the mess for devils to devour in the barbecues of hell. We would all do well to emulate the zeal and perseverance of the devil. Oh how his preachers run to the ends of the earth, undergo hardships and surmount difficulties to propagate their heresies and make proselytes. Now, reader, I hope henceforth you will know no authority but Gods Word, taking it as it is, zealous least any one explain it away. Paul calls it a two-edged sword. If you give it a chance it will cut the heads off your idols till not one survive, and thus you will have nothing left but God and His sweet precious Word. Why do preachers with fine collegiate educations hold on weeks together preaching themselves hoarse to convince the people that they can not receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, thus flatly contradicting Gods plain and unmistakable Word? There is but one possible solution, and that is, that these are verifying Paul

For such are false apostles, deceitful workers transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no wonder: for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore, it is no surprise if indeed his ministers are transformed as ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works. (2Co 11:13-14)

The world is thronged with the devils preachers, as the Holy Ghost through Paul so faithfully warns us. They tell you, you can not receive the Holy Ghost, and that no one has received him since the apostles. Why? Because they are personally ignorant of the Holy Ghost in His regenerating and sanctifying power as a personal indwelling Illuminator and Comforter; they judge all others by themselves. They are like the African king who said that all the people in the world were black, from the simple fact that he had never seen a white man. Now, reader, will you be stupid enough to follow Satans ignorance instead of the blessed Savior and Gods infallible Word, which, as you see here, positively certifies this promise of God to bestow upon His children the gift of the Holy Ghost, is to you and to your children, and to you who are afar off, so many as the Lord our God may call? If you are puzzled amid the clamor of contradictory sectarian shibboleths, just get on your knees and ask the blessed Holy Spirit, while you open your Bible and read it, to reveal it to you. If you are truly honest, your creeds and idols all dead, and yourself dead to everything but God and His Word, you will have no trouble, but always receive the needed light. The reason why the masses of religious people are so easily manipulated by the devils preachers is because they know so little about Gods Word. The blessed Holy Spirit will invariably shed the light on His precious Word, necessary to guide the honest, humble soul in the way of all truth and righteousness. If you are truly walking with God in the light of His Spirit shining on His Word you can detect heretics at once, because they bend the Bible to their creed, thus incurring the awful woe pronounced on the man who handles the Word of God deceitfully. It is awfully wicked to tinker with Gods Word and bend it to your creed, whether written or unwritten. The Bible, like God, bends to nothing, while everything in all the world is to bend to it. How blessedly consolatory that the way to heaven is so plain, that wayfaring men though fools may not err therein.

Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament

2:39 For the {a} promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, [even] as many as the Lord our God shall call.

(a) The word that is used here shows us that it was a free gift.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

The "promise" is the gift of the Holy Spirit (Act 1:5; Act 1:8; Act 2:33). Those "far off" probably include the Diaspora Jews, future generations of Jews, and the Gentiles. Peter had already expressed his belief that Gentiles could be saved (Act 2:21; cf. Joe 2:32), a fact taught repeatedly in both the Old and the New Testament. Peter’s later problem involving the salvation of Cornelius was not due to a conviction that Gentiles were unsaveable. It was a question of the manner by which they became Christians (i.e., not through Judaism, but directly without becoming Jews first). Note, too, Peter’s firm belief in God’s sovereignty (cf. Act 2:23). God takes the initiative in calling the elect to salvation, and then they repent (Act 2:38; cf. Joh 6:37; Rom 8:28-30).

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)